Mccormick Project To Resume

June 24, 1986|By James Strong and John McCarron.

Construction is expected to resume Tuesday on the troubled McCormick Place expansion project, where work has been shut down twice this summer by strikes that have damaged prospects of opening the annex on time in August.

Timothy Roche, president of the striking sheet-metal workers Local 73, said Monday night that he was ordering pickets removed from McCormick Place to allow other trades to resume work there, although the strike of the sheet metal workers will continue.

Paul James, project manager for the Schall/McHugh construction management team, said a ``fragile agreement`` to end picketing has been reached with both the sheet metal workers and another striking union, the heavy equipment operators.

James said there is still slight hope that the upper floor of the two-level annex will be ready for the Aug. 10 opening of the National Hardware Show, which has been promised only the top floor.

``Hopefully, we`ll have a lot of people out there working tomorrow,`` he said.

``We are making every effort to save the shows,`` Roche said, ``if there is any chance at all of saving the shows.``

But James added that some overtime work might be needed to have the top floor ready for the hardware show, and he was not certain that the board which runs McCormick Place would agree to the overtime. The annex project, afflicted earlier with large cost overruns, is close to exceeding the revised budget.

Also, although sheet metal workers union planned to end picketing, there is still ventilating duct work that needs to be completed by union members before the upper level can be completed.

The sponsors of the giant International Machine Tool Show, scheduled to open Sept. 3, were notified by McCormick Place officials last week that the lower level of the annex will not be ready.

Roche said the sheet metal workers also began removing pickets Monday from the expansion project at O`Hare International Airport, and the union intends to remove them from Loop commercial projects Tuesday. Picketing by sheet metal workers will continue at other selected sites in Cook and Lake Counties, he said.

The McCormick Place annex and the O`Hare projects were shut down for four days earlier this month when cement masons went on strike and put up picket lines.

James said the interim agreements that have been reached between some McCormick Place contractors and the heavy equipment operators is especially fragile.